The present application claims priority to Taiwan application No.090107008, entitled xe2x80x9cA METHOD FOR REMINDING A USER OF A COMPUTER SYSTEM,xe2x80x9d filed on Mar. 23, 2001.
(1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for reminding a user of a computer system, and more particularly to a method for reminding a user of a computer system by changing the appearance of a particular object on a screen of the computer system.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
As the computer technology progresses promptly, various daily applications have been added to the computer usage; such as typewriting, calculating, mailing, information browsing, network shopping and so on. Definitely, as the computer become more versatile, the trend that people spend more and more time in front of the computer can be foreseen.
For a user working with a computer, it is quite possible that he/she will miss some other points, say a meeting time for example, while he/she focuses on a specific job on the computer. Therefore, if a device in the computer system can be provided to give the user a 10-minute warning, for example, prior to a meeting, the computer may become more friendly and more dependable.
The additional alerting function for the computer can not only make the computer system more humanized, but also provides a more efficient working environment. For example, if the computer is designed to watch the e-mail system, a special reminder can then be provided to alert the user while meeting an incoming mail so that the user may manage the message of the mail in time and thus plenty of time for checking mail prior to its arrival can be saved.
In the art, following methods have been applied to remind the user of the computer system: 1) flashing letters, 2) deforming a figure, 3) producing a voice, and 4) popping up a dialogue window. For example, when a new message is incoming through a general ICQ, the plot symbolizing the ICQ in the function bar at bottom of the screen will flash to remind the user. However, the plot in general is too tiny to be noticed. For example of a timing apparatus, while a setting time is met, the timing apparatus will produce a noise to remind the user. Yet, such a noise may not be suitable to some quiet working environments. On the other hand, popping up a dialogue window might be a noticeable and quite method to alert the user. However, the user may feel been interrupted sometimes by such a reminder, especially while he/she is working on a particular job.
Therefore, to come up with a quiet, noticeable and un-interrupting reminding method to the user of the computer is worthwhile.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a quiet, noticeable and un-interrupting method for reminding the user.
In accordance with the present invention, the method for reminding the user is applied to a computer system and is used to change appearance of an object on the computer screen while a particular event is met. The present invention includes a preset appearance-changing value and a appearance-changing counter, in which the appearance-changing counter has an initial value of zero. Step a of the method is to determine if the value of the appearance-changing counter is less than the preset appearance-changing value. If yes, the method will continue to step b. Otherwise, the method is ended. In step b, a appearance parameter of the object is assigned to be a first appearance value. Following step b, step c of the method is to pause for a appearance-changing intermittence time before processing step d. In step d of the method, the appearance parameter of the object is assigned to be a second appearance value. Step e that follows step d is to pause the object for another appearance-changing intermittence time before going to step f. In step f, one is added to the appearance-changing counter. Then, the method for the present invention will repeat the whole process by performing step a again.
It is an advantage of the present invention that By providing the method for reminding the user in accordance with the present invention, the user of the computer system is reminded in a quiet and noticeable way, and the current job of the user is not disturbed or interrupted.
These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after having read the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment, which is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.